Bring in the Booze
by PoptartGladiator
Summary: Fang invites the gang over for a party. Of course, at any party thrown by Fang, there will be alcohol. Let us take a look at the different personalities the ex-l'Cie and co. adopt when they're under the influence. HopexLight, acting as if FFXIII-2 stuck with a happy ending.


**Friends and I were wondering what would go down at a party with the FF13 cast, and this happened. I somehow managed to make this fluffy, so be warned.**

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I drummed my fingers on the kitchen table, watching as the drunken partygoers stumbled throughout Fang and Vanille's house. Serah sat across from me, rolling her eyes at Snow's attempt to open the door, completely failing. When he'd reach for the knob, he's miss by about 5 inches, smacking his fingers into the wall. This only stopped him for a few seconds before he attempted once more, finally stumbling outside, leaving the door ajar.

Noel, still 18 and not quite allowed to drink yet, had been with them until recently, when Fang had sidled up and threw an arm around his shoulders, leaning in close and attempting to get him to try, "just a sip," but he'd insisted that he didn't want any, anyways. Ignoring him, she'd grabbed him by the arm and all but dragged him to the couch, were her arm stayed hung around her shoulders, and her face unnecessarily close to his, a bottle of booze in her hand. Occasionally, Noel would attempt to squirm out of her grip, but she'd always get a firm hold on him, attempting to push the bottle closer to his mouth.

Serah turned back to me, taking one last glance around the room. "Where's Hope?" she asked, remembering how he'd been avoiding Snow earlier, until the 6'7" behemoth had found him and led him outside. Since then, we hadn't seen or heard a thing about the silver-haired man.

As if on cue, Snow and Hope burst through the open door, stumbling, into the room, an arm around each other's shoulders. They ran over to us and heavily sat down beside us; Snow beside Serah, and Hope next to me. Hope grabbed my beer, which I'd only had a sip of, and began to down it, finally placing it back on the table with a loud 'thump'. He slowly looked towards me and then began giggling, proceeding to lift his finger and poke me, right in the middle of my cheek.

"Boop!" he said, and when the hint of a blush crossed my cheeks, he threw his head back and began to laugh almost maniacally, slapping his leg for good measure. I turned my head away and sighed, glancing at Serah who just rolled her eyes in response. Snow had his hand around her and was attempting to start up a story, but he couldn't seem to remember what it was about.

I occupied myself by once more people-watching. The NORA team were hear as well, and it seemed that, surprisingly, Maqui was a pretty sexual drunk, and unsurprisingly, so was Lebreau, seeing as the two were awkwardly making out in a corner. If Snow remembered it, he was going to have a ball teasing them. Fang might end up joining in as well.

Yuj seemed to be a rather emotional drunk, and was crying in the corner, holding onto Serah's cat, also named Snow. He seemed to be whispering to the cat, as if she would listen and understand all of his probably meaningless problems. Or his made-up problems, like when he'd first gotten drunk and thought that Serah's hair was made of cotton-candy, then proceeding to try and eat it, earning him a nice bruise beneath his eye, courtesy of a tipsy Snow.

Vanille had only had a few shots, but she acted rather drunk even without alcohol in her system. She was skipping in a circle around Noel and Fang, occasionally shouting out random things that Fang had just said. Once, she tripped, and simply stood back up, laughing much like Hope had just before. She resumed her skipping, although this time backwards. She occasionally bumped into someone and said, "Eeros," which I later figured out was her saying, "Sorry" backwards.

Sazh wasn't quite drunk, but tipsy, and was sitting on the couch opposite Fang, just staring at them. He wasn't one to talk much when he was intoxicated, and it seemed he might stand up to join Serah and I in the sober corner - at least until Snow and Hope had flopped down next to us.

Gadot was attempting to grab Mog, who was flying in zigzags around the room and above heads, trying to dodge the ginger giant. There would be the occasional yelp of, "Kuuupoooo!" when Gadot managed to grasp a wing or bobble.

Eventually, though, Snow did remember his story, and began blabbering at a mile a minute. "So I takes Hope outside, and I give 'im a couple of bottles a' booze, and I says, 'if you wanna come back insides, you's gosta drink all these beers!' So I leaves 'im, and when I comes back, 'e's drunk! Then I took 'im inside, and 'ere we are!" Snow slurred, Hope giggling and smiling widely, albeit a tad creepily, at me. He hadn't really said a coherent word since he'd come back inside, just giggled and grinned and… "booped".

Suddenly, Snow stood up and ran over to Fang, challenging her to an arm wrestling match. Standing, and dragging poor Noel along with her, they sat at the kitchen counter and began to go at it.

"I can't believe you got drunk, Hope," I muttered, shaking my head at him. His grin only grew wider and he leaned towards me just a bit more. He blinked once, I blinked once. I leaned slightly to the other side, away from him, and turned towards Serah.

I could tell she was holding back a laugh, and after a few seconds of her face growing redder and redder, it burst forth from her, loud and obnoxious. Of course, I loved to hear Serah laugh, she was my sister. But… not when it was at me. Rolling my eyes and grimacing, I glanced towards Hope and gently push him away, only for him to return, leaning in closer than before. Serah's laughing, though seemingly impossible, only got louder and eventually she was resting her head and arms on the table, hardly able to breath. She finally looked up, the remains of her laughter dying out as she wiped her eyes free of tears.

Hope's eyes had gone from wide and concentrated to half-lidded and dreamy, and his smile had morphed into a lopsided grin. He suddenly hiccupped and his mouth and eyes screwed up into a confused expression.

"Lighty! What was dat?!" Hope asked, confusion turning to worry as another hiccup escaped him. "Do I have aliens inside me!?" he wailed, shaking my shoulders. I slapped both of my hands on either side of his face, in order to stop his head from shaking all around and forcing him to look into my eyes. My own icy blue eyes narrowed at his wide jade green ones.

His cheeks pressed together, along with his spiky, out of control silver locks, gave him the appearance of a puffer fish. I almost laughed, but forced it down and took a deep breath. He hiccupped once more, eyes darting around the room as he began to freak out.

"Hope, that's a hiccup. Don't worry, they'll pass soon. You don't have aliens inside of you. Your stomach is just a little upset, that's all," I informed him. From what I knew, hiccups were caused by the diaphragm, but I wasn't going to start explaining that to someone who turned into a simple-minded 5-year-old when drunk.

Hope grinned, and suddenly stood up. "If my tummy's upset, you should make it happy, Lighty!" shouted the happy drunk, grabbing my hand and pressing it against his stomach. Blushing madly, I quickly retrieved my hand and stood up, nearly knocking the chair over. I could hear Serah's snickers from behind me as I turned to walk towards the kitchen.

I grabbed a glass and poured water in it, walking back to Hope and handing the glass to him. "Drink this, it'll make your stomach 'happy'," I muttered, putting all of my weight onto one foot and crossing my arms as I watched him down the whole thing in one go. He smiled again and hugged me quickly, thanking me for making his tummy happy. Over my shoulder, I could see Serah smirking and giggling to herself.

"Fang!" she suddenly called out, said brunette looking over from her now legitimate wrestling match with Snow.

"WHAT." she replied, proceeding to jump onto Snows back, pushing him to the ground, the blond beneath her letting out the air in his lungs with an 'oof!'

"Light and Hope are pronouncing their _love _for one another!" Serah lied in a singsong voice, waving for Fang to come over. The Oerban did just that as Snow and Gadot began to arm-wrestle.

I could see Noel creeping off towards the other side of his room, almost to the door when a sharp knocking interrupted his getaway. Sighing, he answered it to reveal a very annoyed looking Alyssa. Not waiting for an invitation inside, she pushed passed the confused boy and looked around the room until she spotted Hope, who had begun to attempt singing the alphabet backwards. It'd been 5 minutes and he'd only made it to V.

Not exactly excited about the new arrival, I finally made my way over to the fridge and grabbed a beer. It was going to be one long, frustrating night.

By the time I'd lugged my feet back towards the table, I'd gotten rid of half the liquid in the bottle I was holding. Alyssa was attempting to grab onto Hope's arm, except she couldn't because of the fact that he'd begun to make a game of dodging her.

"I told you, Director, there's a sudden emergency and we need your help back at the lab," she urged him, still trying to grab his arm.

All of the sudden, Fang grabbed her and spun her around, pushing her towards the door.

"Sorry, miss, but 'is is'n 'invite only' party," she said, gleefully shoving her.

"Yes, well, as the Director's assistant, it is in my every power to find him, wherever he is, and bring him back to the Academy in a state of emergency." Alyssa rattled off, worming her way past Fang and back towards a very drunk Director.

"What's the emergency?" Serah asked, attempting to be as polite as possible, but I could see the tell-tale signs of annoyance on her face, such as the slight twitch of an eyebrow or the corner of her mouth.

"Well - you see- it's - uh - it's confidential!" Alyssa huffed, finally managing to grab Hope. Once she did, his joyful expression slid into a very angry one. He seemed to almost sober up, as he yanked his arm out of her grasp and stood over her, glaring.

"Director, you must understand! You need to come with me _now_! It's a real uh… emergency we have on our hands!" she blabbered, eyes darting upwards to meet his, but then quickly down again.

I, myself, had never seen Hope so sickeningly angry before. I could tell he was still rather drunk, though.

Alyssa looked towards us and said, "What's more important!? Me, or some drunken bunch of lunatics?" She waved her hands towards us in a dismissive manner. At this point, everyone else had slowly circled the infuriated Director and his infuriating assistant. Snow pounded his fists together angrily, Serah pushing him backwards with a hand on his chest, and Fang cracked her knuckles dangerously, only to be pulled a few steps back by Vanille.

Before anyone else could react, the alcohol in my system did. The table was flipped over and the variously filled and emptied bottles crashed to the floor, many people jumping backwards to avoid the glass. A few people, such as Serah, gasped and latched onto the nearest person to them.

"You think you can just come into someone else's home and insult them!?" the alcohol raged. "You really, truly think that you can hold yourself in a higher esteem than somebody else, just because you're _THAT SELFISH!?_" it yelled, an angry, burning heat filling my chest.

Finally recovering from her initial shock, Alyssa retaliated. "The Director has a duty to the Academy, AND to me! I'm not just his assistant, I am ALSO his good friend, just like you! Oh, wait, never mind, I don't yell and _FLIP TABLES _at his friends!"

Fire, and maybe some alcohol, coursed through my veins. I could hear the blood rushing, pounding, pulsating in my ears, my face heating up in an unusual show of anger. The alcohol and I were about to join forces against this girl with _stupid, boyish hair _when-

"Alyssa! Never speak that way to my girlfriend!" Hope shouted, jumping between us, pushing us apart, and then proceeding to wrap a protective arm around my waist.

The mad fire that had pulsated through me just moments earlier quickly changed into a warm, tingling sensation as my heart quickened, making my chest feel as if it was about to explode. I didn't think my face could heat up anymore than it did at that particular moment, though that didn't register as much as the hand currently resting on my hip. My breath froze in my throat as Hope pulled me towards him. I slowly lowered my head, covering my obviously cherry-red face with my bangs. At least, I attempted to.

A collective intake of breath was heard, every member of the room suddenly growing very quiet. I shrunk against Hope's somehow confidently strong frame. Must be the alcohol, I thought, that was giving him this kind of uncharacteristic confidence. If I was lucky, that very drug would cause this incident to be but a blur in the minds of certain gossipy ex-l'Cie.

Judging by my reaction, though, Alyssa, along with everyone else, could tell that the green-eyed man's statement had been true. Even if I weren't turning into the brightest colored tomato they'd ever seen in their lives, the fact that I hadn't given him black eye(s) was as a dead giveaway.

Alyssa spluttered and stuttered for a few moments before finally managing a, "I suppose I can handle it on my own," and doing an about-face to walk straight out the door. Fang gave her a good shove and shouted, "Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!" before proceeding to slam that very door. The crowd separated, though many of the people in the room proceeded to give a quick, "Congrats", or, "Good luck," and the occasional, "Dammit, Fang won the bet,"

Said lance-master gave me a slap on the shoulder and chuckled, but walked away without saying anything. Serah gave me a warm smile and began gushing to Snow about how cute of a couple Hope and I were going to be as she walked away.

Hope, however, still had his arm wrapped tightly around me and my blush had not died down one damn bit. He was giving me a dopey smile, and it seemed that he had not completely sobered up yet.

"Knock-knock!" he said, blinking once at me. I blinked back. What the hell was he doing? A knock-knock joke? Seriously? Like, _now?! _

_"Who's there?"_

_"Banana."_

_"Banana who?"_

_"Knock-knock."_

_Raising an eyebrow at him, I decided to play him at this little game. My blush was slowly dying down without my noticing._

"…Who's there?"

"Banana!" he said with a toothy grin.

"Banana… who?" I asked, my eyes narrowing.

"Knooooock-knock!" he said once more. If he tried this one more time, I really was going to give him a black eye.

"Who's there?" I replied, rolling my eyes.

"Orange!" he said, grinning just a bit wider. Slightly intrigued with this new development, I continued.

"Orange who…?"

"Orange you glad I didn't say banana!" Hope said, chuckling. That was the punch-line? That whole joke just for… some pun?

I stared at him for a good 10 seconds before bursting into a fit of laughter. I was clinging onto his shoulders to hold myself up, just laughing all of the tension from Alyssa's visit away. When I finally came to, wiping my eyes, I smiled faintly and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, causing him to blush a little. I straightened myself and half-smirked at him, jerking a thumb over my shoulder.

"What do you say about grabbing some more booze?" I asked. The same dopey, lopsided grin plastered his face as he just nodded enthusiastically and began practically skipping with me towards a cooler on the side of the room.

If I were to list some of the best times of my life, this drunken, crazy party would no doubt have been one of the greatest.

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**Ok so I only really added Alyssa as a plot device. I know that that part was dumb and she seemed a little ooc but this is my story and I do what I _damn well please. _Besides, I don't like her. Sorry. I made her rather sassy in this story though, hehe. Hope you liked it, or at least got a laugh out of it. **


End file.
